"I haven't told you the news yet, mother."
"No; what is it, my boy?" said Mrs. Bond in a pleasant tone.
"Why, I've just found out that we ain't more than ten miles from Fairfield, the place where the Winns have gone to live."
"Ten miles is a long way, Jack," said his mother.
"Oh, but I thought it was nigh upon a hundred, and that I should never be able to see poor old Tom again. I say, mother, you would like little Tom Winn," he added.
Mrs. Bond sniffed. "They're a stuck-up lot," she said shortly.
"Who are a stuck-up lot?" asked Jack's younger sister, who came into the kitchen in time to hear these words.
"Why, Jack's fine friends, the Winns," said her mother.
"Well, you see they've got something to be stuck-up about. Look at Elsie's scholarship. Why, all the school was proud of Elsie Winn," said Annie Bond, in a tone of admiration. "I tell you, mother, now we have moved away from Sadler Street, and I'm going to a new school, I mean to try and be like Elsie, for all the girls liked her, and the teachers too."
Jack clapped his hands. "That's it, Annie; you try and be like Elsie, and I must try to go to see Tom; for if ever I get a chance to help him, I must, for the mischief I did for him."